By Starlight Thus
by Coru
Summary: Travel between dimensions is always difficult...unless of course you have a Key. 10Rose, crossover with BtVS. Finished!
1. Hear Not The Wind

Title: By Starlight Thus

Author: Coru  
Disclaimer: I wasn't even BORN when Dr. Who was created, so no, I don't own it. Though I wouldn't mind having the Ninth Doctor as a pet...sigh.

* * *

The world was coming into focus, and she wasn't sure exactly how she felt about that. Dawn Summers put a hand over her eyes to block out the blinding light that was determined to bleed through her eyelids. She supposed the fact that she had all her limbs should be a comfort, considering the life she led – but the way that every single one of them was aching just then, she found she couldn't quite appreciate it.

"Will someone please turn down the lights?" She moaned miserably.

"Can't," another voice replied with just a hint of a groan hidden in its thick Londoner accent. "It's the sun."

"Can you turn down the sun then?" Dawn asked peevishly. She peeled her hand away slowly and looked around through squinted eyes. "Why am I lying on a park bench? And who are you?"

"Will you stuff it? I'm just as hungover as you are," there was a blonde sitting on the bench opposite her, and true to her words she looked as miserable as Dawn felt. "But to answer, no I can't, I don't know, and I'm Rose. Who're you?"

"Dawn," she sat up, trying not to jar her insides too much. "I think I might be sick," she warned, then promptly turned and vomited off the back of the bench. "Oh god, what the hell did I do last night?"

"Flew to London apparently," Rose was looking around – very, very slowly, as Dawn noted. "This is Powell Park, it's about half a mile from my old flat."

Dawn blinked a few times and let out an unhappy sigh. "Rose...why do I remember candles and a very large knife?"

The blonde froze. "And a bowl?" She said softly. "My blood and yours?"

"Note to self...deep magic and tequila are non-mixy things," Dawn sighed and swung her legs over, gently attempting to stand. "Okay, stomach is being calmish since there's nothing left in it. I vaguely remember the ritual...so why did you want to come here?"

Rose looked around, also easing to her feet. "Depends on where 'here' is," she replied. "If we got to...where I wanted to go then it's because...well," she shrugged rather bashfully.

"Great, I'm a transdimensional dating service," Dawn grumbled. "You dragged me across the void for a guy?"

"Listen I'm not sober enough to argue yet," Rose waved a hand in the general direction of the younger brunette. Her brow creased and Dawn was suddenly glad she had never quite grasped aura reading as Tara had – the air of misery about her was potent even to the naked eye, the inner eye would have been blinded. "An' it ain't like I can just pick up a phone and have him meet for tea. He could be anywhere, anytime and I would never find him. For now it's just enough...bein' in the same universe, ya know?"

Dawn chewed her bottom lip. "I don't really follow, but...I got you here, so I'm stuck with you now. No going home without some wicked powerful artifacts and I don't exactly have the connections in this world that I had in my old one."

"That's how all my adventures seem to start," Rose sighed. "Meet somebody, do somethin' stupid and possibly brave, get stuck in peril until the Doctor rescues me. Here's hopin' the pattern keeps up."

"Well for right now we're only stuck, not so much with the peril." Dawn glanced up to the skyline. "Wow, London," she paused and tilted her head. "Where are all the Zeppelins?"

"It's an alternate London," Rose explained, peering up at the sky as well. "I was born in this one, lived my whole life here 'till the Doctor came. He took me travelin', then I accidentally ended up up trapped in the other one. It's stupid really...to come here. Everyone else who matters is on the other side...Mum and Dad, Mickey and my sis. But...he's the Doctor."

"So we're looking for your doctor," Dawn said slowly. "And I'm gonna guess it's not because you've got a touch of the flu."

"Not that sort of doctor," There was a grin on her face, but the sheer pain in her eyes was striking. "He's a traveler, he picks up people and shows them the universe, backward and forward through time."

"So...time travel."

"And space!" Rose quirked a smile. "My first trip out I saw the end of the Earth. Sort of depressin' actually, but gave me a good perspective."

"Wow." There was a long pause. "God that would be such a fucking relief. 'Well it's done now, stop pestering me!' sort of thing."

"Come to think of it yeah," Rose laughed a bit. "You save the world a lot too?"

"You have no idea." Dawn stopped abruptly. She blinked a few times and glanced at Rose. "Hey, are you strong?"

"Strong enough, why?"

"I think you need to catch me," with those words her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed into her companion's arms.

* * *

"God I feel like such a Giles," Dawn mumbled into a soft pillow. "Passing out, waking up weird places..."

"No worries," a kindly voice said from somewhere in the room. "Rose brought you here, you're safe."

Dawn raised her head and blinked at the dark-haired woman standing next to her bed. Her brows drew together in confusion as she took in the comfortable, homey décor of the room. It was certainly not a hotel, not nearly sterile enough for that. "Here is where exactly?"

"My house," she smiled. "I'm Sarah Jane Smith, an old friend of the Doctor. You'll be alright, you just lost a bit of blood, not good when combined with interdimensional travel, let alone interdimensional travel and vodka."

"Tequila," Dawn corrected quickly with a rueful smile. "Tequila is the one that makes me act on bad ideas – vodka just makes me melancholy."

"Ah yes, the many shades of drunkenness," she smiled back and leaned over the bed to place her hand on Dawn's forehead. "You were running a fever for a bit, but I think you've cooled off. How do you feel?"

"Like I got hit by a double decker bus then had the guards in the furry hats jump up and down on the squishy bits that were left," there was a pause. "And in less whiny-brat terms, I've got a migraine and this weird achy feeling in all my joints. Like I've done something incredibly athletic and I don't remember it."

"Well you opened the void and single-handedly pulled a person through. That will do it," Sarah Jane pointed out shrewdly. "No one is meant to be exposed to the void like that."

"Yeah..." she paused, chewing her bottom lip. "Deep magics. Can't get back now," she laughed, a tad hysterically. "My whole family and everyone I know is back there, but unless you have a copy of the Codex Tractus Viator and a Seed of Elpis then we're trapped."

"I'm sorry," Sarah Jane looked sympathetic and for a moment reminded Dawn of her own mother. She fought the burning in her eyes and raised her chin, internally channeling her sister.

"I'll survive." Dawn smiled. "If there's once thing a Scooby is good at...it's living." She stretched painfully and reached out a hand to Sarah Jane. "I think I might be a bit weak...but I'd really like to move a bit."

Sarah Jane shook her head and took most of the younger girl's weight on herself. "Let's get you to the kitchen, I think you just need some potassium. Luckily I keep a healthy supply of bananas in the house at all times."

Dawn giggled as they made their way down the hall. "If you can add a bit of cereal and milk to that, it sounds like a fabulous breakfast."

"Well, I'll see what I can dig up for you. I know you Americans have a slightly different taste in foods than we do."

"Yeah, we've actually got some," Dawn grinned. "I didn't even think about having to eat British...god Giles would be so proud. He's English...sort of a father figure for my sister. Mostly he drinks a lot of tea and pretends to enjoy my cooking."

"Naturally," Sarah Jane pulled a face as she tried to help Dawn into the breakfast area, where Rose was already nibbling absently on an apple. The blonde looked startled to see them both, but quickly jumped to her feet and took Dawn's other arm. Sarah Jane smiled gratefully. "Thank you Rose."

"I'm sorry," Rose murmured as they maneuvered Dawn into a chair. "I had no idea it would turn out like this."

"Hey, I offered," Dawn smiled across the breakfast table at the sorrowful Rose. "I might have been drunk, but I still offered. Not your fault."

"But I've got you stuck here - now you're sick, and I can't even find the Doctor," Rose sighed heavily. "He only came to London so much because I wanted to visit my Mum...Sarah Jane hadn't seen him for twenty years, when we met up with her. What are the odds of finding him, in the whole of time and space?"

Dawn chewed her lower lip and tilted her head. "Depends on if you've got anything of his."

Rose frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, getting back across the void is a hell of a spell. Requires a lot of power. Teleportation is a whole lot easier...especially if we have something of his to target on. Emotionally connected is especially good."

Rose reached under her hoody and pulled out a key on a long silver chain. "How 'bout this? It's a key to his ship." She pulled the chain over her head and placed it on the table. "There are properties about it...well, it's not a normal house key, I'll say it like that."

Dawn picked it up and her eyes went wide. No one noticed the faint swirls of green flickering across her sky blue irises as the key began to glow. "Well," her voice had an odd sort of echo in it. "Now that's just interesting."


	2. Calm of Heaven

Calm of Heaven

* * *

Dawn began to tremble slightly, and the golden glow of the TARDIS key began to change, pulsing with an odd green light every few seconds. She dropped it, gasping. "It – it was – I don't know what it was doing." She pressed her hands over her heart. "It felt so..." she shook her head. "I can't mess with these forces, I just _can't_." She stood up, either not noticing or not caring that her weakness seemed to have vanished.

Rose glanced at Sarah Jane, but the older woman seemed as confused as the newer companion. "Why not?" Rose demanded. "Did it hurt you?"

"No! Yes! It wants...I don't know, but I can't do it!" Dawn began to pace. "When I did that spell before, I saw it. The thing we crossed, the place there. You would never understand...but I _saw_." She shivered a bit and rubbed her hands across her arms. "For just a split second, I saw all the in-between spaces of the universes."

"I've seen it," Rose replied quietly. "My mind doesn't let me remember really, but sometimes it slips in. I'll just be walkin' along, on my mobile or eatin' a sandwich and then suddenly I'll see somethin' that happened a thousand years ago on a planet I never heard of, because I looked into the vortex. It's scary, but it's nothin' to do with now."

"Maybe not for you," Dawn folded her arms. "Look, even if I could do it – I couldn't get you to him. Just touching that thing...it wants something, it thinks it can get it from me and it doesn't care what that means. I could _maybe_ turn it on, like a giant outerspace batsignal. Which would only help if your doc is watching."

"He's watching," Sarah Jane smiled sadly. "The Doctor is always watching, for the next adventure and the next person to show around the universe. And I think he'll spend the rest of his life watching for you Rose, if the way he looked at you before was the slightest indication." She sighed ruefully. "He never looked at me like that...but he was older then, and I was younger."

Dawn quirked an eyebrow and looked between the two. "How old is your alien dude anyway? He just goes around picking up girls to parade around the universe?"

"It's not like that!" Rose snapped furiously. "He's lonely! He hates it so he finds people, anyone who needs him and he helps. Everyone is always demandin' somethin' from him, rescues or ideas or they're tryin' to kill him, that's why he needs me! Just one person in the whole universe who is there for him instead of themselves, that's all he needs!"

Dawn shrank at the anger on her new friend's face. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean it like...I'm sorry."

Rose blanched. "No, god, Dawn no, I shouldn't have shouted. You don't know him...once you meet him you'll understand."

The youngest Summers ducked her head and stared at her pink flamingo socks for a long moment. "Then we need to find a magic shop. All I need is a simple broadcasting spell and a shit-ton of power...I can do it, if I have the stuff."

Sarah Jane held out her hands as if to stop them both. "No," she said firmly. "Dawn, you're right. You have gone through the void already recently, you can't risk yourself again. Rose...we'll find another way to contact the Doctor."

"There isn't any other way," Dawn folded her arms. "Look, it's scary. I am scared, I reacted scared – but I didn't just travel across a bunch of dimensions and not to mention the Atlantic Ocean just to play tea party – no offense Ms. Smith."

"None taken,"

"Dawn," Rose began.

"Nope, resolve face." She pointed to her expression, and the others had to admit that she appeared rather firmly decided. She waited for further objections, but heard none – and didn't pause long enough for them to think of new ones. "First step, finding a spell that will amplify the batsignal -"

"Must you call it that?" Sarah Jane interrupted.

"Yes," Dawn replied shortly before continuing. "Then once we've got a spell we find a place with enough power to boost it. We might have to go to Cleveland, and that's even assuming there's still a Hellmouth there in this world...might not even _be_ Hellmouths in this dimension..."

"Power?" Rose began to smile just a bit. "I might have an idea there."

* * *

"This is awesome!" Dawn was hopping up and down just a little. "I've never been to Wales! And this is perfect, god it's like _radiating_ off this place! Cardiff! What'd you say it's called?"

"The Rift," Rose smiled and hugged her jacket tighter against herself. "Sort of like the San Andreas fault, only with the planes of life instead of land masses."

"Ohhh my god this is too cool," Dawn danced a little. "I can feel it! I can feeeeeel the energy and it's just burning to do something useful! Oh it's awesome!"

"How do you do all this stuff you do anyhow?" Rose had to call a little louder, as the younger girl seemed intent to wander down the street. "How do you know it all?"

"I don't know 'it all'," Dawn laughed a bit. "I know a teeny tiny bit, my sister's best friend taught me. They thought I'd be good because...well, just because!" She spun a few times. "I can feel it, and it feels like home!"

Rose laughed outright at the joy being expressed. "Alright then? This will work?"

"Oh yes, oh oh oh oh yes it will! Almost very probably!"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Sometimes Dawnie, you remind me of the Doctor. There's a bit more rhyme and reason to his madness though, I will say."

"Oh? That's awesome, I babble!" Dawn danced back down the street to Rose's side. "Ready?"

"Ready?" Rose raised an eyebrow at her then looked down as Dawn pointed subtly at her watch. "Oh, I guess it's lunchtime innit?"

"Yuh huh." Dawn tilted her head suddenly and beamed. "Rosie, have I got an idea for you. This doc of yours, it's been years since you saw him right?"

"Yeah," Rose sighed heavily.

"You love him?"

"I figured that much was obvious."

"Then girl, we're gonna knock him dead." Dawn grabbed Rose's hand and raced down the street. "First we've gotta fix those eyebrows of yours!"

_"What?"_

* * *

Rose was not entirely sure what to think of the makeover that Dawn had engineered. The fact that it had cost over a hundred quid for the hair alone gave her pause – but she couldn't deny the results. Dawn had tried desperately to convince her allow the hairdresser to take her brown, but upon Rose's staunch refusal had at least convinced her to go a richer, more golden blonde, with darker caramel tones to soften it.

She really wasn't at all disappointed, it was a lovely 'do...but it wasn't like it had been when she'd been with the Doctor, and _that_ thought startled her more than she had expected. Dawn suggested that random personal insights could be spawned by any event, realizing that she hadn't changed anything about herself in three years because she wanted to stay the person he'd left wasn't really so shocking. The fact that she started sobbing when she realized how different it was had been declared over-dramatic but not entirely uncalled for.

Dawn had in fact just finished touching up her makeup – with 'less goth-y eyes', as the American insisted, when they finally sat down for lunch. It was a lovely day so they stopped by a market and got a couple of pre-wrapped sandwiches, before settling on a bench in a courtyard.

"I like Cardiff."

Rose raised a newly golden eyebrow at this. "You're one of the few."

"It's cool and Britishy."

"It was almost destroyed by a Slitheen once," Rose remarked casually. "They'd elected her mayor, she was goin' to open the rift and ride the shockwaves to another planet. We stopped her, me and the Doctor."

"What's a Slitheen?"

"Well, it's more of 'who are the Slitheen', it's a family name," Rose leaned back and admired the area. "They're from this planet that's got sixteen syllables in it's name, they sort of empty people out and wear their skins like that movie with Will Smith. But they're too big, compressing like that makes them leak gas like nothing else – let me tell you, _farting_ aliens was not the sort of adventure I signed up for."

Dawn snorted and shoved Rose. "Not while I'm drinking okay, that went up my nose!"

"Yeah, well," Rose grinned and took a bite of her sandwich. She frowned suddenly, pausing mid-chew. She swallowed quickly and glanced up at the lanky girl beside her. "Did you say somethin'?"

"No..." Dawn trailed off and frowned as well. "What'd you hear?"

"Thought I heard my name..." Rose began to look around them and stood up. "There it is again someone -" she broke off and a smile stretched across her face. Suddenly she was running across the square, her arms thrown out. "Jack!" Dawn quickly packed up the remains of their picnic and took off after her companion.

"Rose!" A handsome man in a long coat had picked her up and was spinning her ecstatically. "Rosie Rose Tyler I can't believe it!"

"Believe it Captain!" Rose laughed. "I can't believe it's you, last time I saw you -"

"I kissed you _and_ the Doctor!" He grinned broadly. "One of the best days of my life."

"Yeah...wasn't a bad day for me either, the Doctor kissed me too!" Rose giggled. "Of course it was because I had taken in the energy of the TARDIS and was dying so he had to get it out of me, but still."

"Yeah I heard about that," Jack set her down but kept an arm tight around her shoulders. "Rose Tyler, benevolent god." He kissed her on the temple roughly. "I thought you were trapped. Thought I'd never see you again."

"You honestly think there's a force in this universe that could keep me and the Doctor apart for long?" Rose smiled. "I found a way back, now I just have to find a way to let him know about it."

"Well I'd give you my sensor so you can keep an eye out, but -" he broke off and glanced to the side. "Got yourself a friend here?"

"Oh this is Dawn," Rose broke off from him a bit, blushing slightly. "Dawn Summers, this is-"

"Captain Jack Harkness, it's a pleasure," he extended a hand and a charming smile when she shook it bashfully. Rose shoved him. "What? You and him both – can't I even say hello to anyone?"

"Not when you do it like that," Rose stuck out her tongue. "Dawn, Jack traveled with me and the Doctor for a while, don't believe a word he says, and do _not_ sleep with him."

"I am incredibly offended," Jack pressed a hand to his chest. "Do you honestly think that that was our only goal? That humanity conquered the stars just to gain conquests?"

"No, but I think you did," Rose grinned and threw her arms around him again. "Oh, you smell like Jack and it's wonderful. There was no Jack in the other world, no barrage balloons and champagne for me. I missed you!"

He rested his chin on her hair and smiled. "I missed you too Rose Tyler. Missed you more than I can say."

Dawn cleared her throat. "Well, since I seem to be intruding on something hella private, I'm gonna go be...elsewhere for a while."

"No, no," Rose reached out and grabbed Dawn's hand, pulling her into the embrace. "Jack is full of equal opportunity hugs. Jack, hug Dawn. I've done to her the reverse of what was done to me – I've pulled her back through to our universe when she's from the other one, with no way of getting back. Dawn needs a hug."

She found that she did, indeed, need a hug when suddenly she was wrapped up in the three-way embrace.

Someone coughed delicately from not far behind them, and they quickly broke apart. Jack in particular shuffled his feet a bit. "Hello Gwen!" He greeted brightly.

"Havin' a party?" The slight brunette stood, arms akimbo. "I thought we were in a bit of a rush, which was why you left me back there alone?"

He jerked as if she'd shocked him. "Oh!" He clenched his fist against his forehead. "Right, I have a life outside of obsessing over the TARDIS. I always forget that part." He grabbed both the young girls' hands and smiled. "Come on Rose, you too Dawn...you'll love this."


	3. Unearthly Height

Unearthly Height

* * *

Dawn was oddly enthused by the frantic rushing about that the others were doing, her fingers kept twitching, as if they itched to help. Rose seemed content to just lean back in her chair and watch Jack work; she occasionally pointed out the origins of some item or other that she'd seen somewhere before – but Dawn wanted to be running and touching and joining in.

She felt as if someone should be making a long speech about how they would overcome it all...but didn't want to be the one to point it out. She'd never been good at speeches anyway. She decided instead to pace a bit, and examine some of the little things they had encased around the room. She tilted her head and a choked gasp escaped her. She pressed her nose against the glass and stared at a small, glittering sliver of rock.

"Rose!" She waved her hand at the blonde. "Oh my god Rose come here!"

The other girl dropped her feet off the table and crossed the room. "What? Somethin' excitin'?"

"Oh you have no idea! This is a Mercury Shard, a little piece of comet with tons of cool shininess. Willow would sell her right boob for one of these!" She bounced a little, her face still pressed against the case. "If I get a hold of a blessed cup, I know the ritual to do!" She stood up and frowned. "Or if we could get to Italy we could get some funny-hatted Catholic to bless pretty much any cup made of precious metal. Might be easier than finding one that's pre-blessed. It's kind of a tossup here, I dunno how good your magic shops are."

Suddenly Jack was between them with his arms draped over their shoulders as he leaned over it. "Oh yeah that thing. We cut it off of a meteor a few months ago."

"Can I have it?" Dawn looked at him with puppy-dog eyes. "It would be super awesome if I could have it."

Jack smiled broadly at her. "No!" He replied cheerfully. He hugged her shoulders a bit. "Nothing leaves this office without good reason, especially not for weird voodoo rituals."

"Voodoo?" Dawn pouted. "I never do voodoo. I'd totally give it back, but this would save me a lot of trouble in looking up another ritual with stuff that we can get! I just need to hold it for a little while!" She blinked up at him sadly. "Don't you want Rose to see her pet alien dude again?"

Rose let out a faintly growl-ish noise. "I told you to stop talking about him like that," she grumbled.

"Sorry," Dawn was still looking pathetically at Jack. "You miss the Doctor too don't you Captain Jack?"

"Oh now that's just heart-wrenching!" He patted her back a little roughly. "I can't, really, hands are tied. You seem like an enterprising girl, I'm sure you can figure something out that doesn't involve taking hold of any of my stuff."

"You wish she'd take hold of your stuff," Rose mumbled.

"I think that was vaguely dirty, and I might be insulted," Jack grinned. "Not saying it's wrong," he winked at Dawn. "But I still might be insulted."

Dawn giggled girlishly and then blushed dark. "Okay, so on the topic of not-sexy-dudes, your Doctor. Once I flag him down, what then?"

"I resent your implications, first off," Rose folded her arms. "The Doctor is not not-sexy!"

"Definitely not. Though this version seems a bit less comfortable in his skin than the last one," Jack paused thoughtfully. "Seemed like there might have been a shot with the old one. Plus the big ears were just awesome."

"I know, and he had the big old nose!" Rose giggled. "He was so adorable and then, oh when he smiled! Not that the new Doctor isn't fabulous, but I do miss mine sometimes."

Jack smiled sadly and wrapped his arms around her. "Yours huh? I distinctly recall us sharing rather well."

Dawn's eyebrows had been slowly creeping toward her hairline as her eyes widened. "Sharing? And face changing? You guys live a weirder life than I do, and that's saying something."

Rose laughed. "It's not us, well, it's the Doctor. And Torchwood," she added, looking around a bit. "Oh Jack, you know I worked for Torchwood in the other dimension. In London, but we weren't evil like here."

"Torchwood has never been evil," Jack didn't seem to be looking at them anymore, gazing around the room levelly. "It just attracts the people that are."

Dawn reached out and took his hand. "Power always does."

He looked back at her and whatever had been bothering him was shaken off. He smiled. "You really will fit in on the TARDIS."

"So I keep hearing," Dawn turned back and looked sadly at the slice of rock. "I really can't borrow it?"

"Nope. Then again," Jack shrugged. "Nobody seems to listen to what I say. So I'll be turning my back as I actually try to do my work, and no one will be looking really closely at the lift."

Rose wrapped her arms around him from behind and rested her chin on his shoulder. "I love you Jack," she said softly. "And I'm sorry we left you. I want you to know that."

"I know," he sighed quietly. "I forgave you both a long time ago."

She kissed his cheek softly. "I can make him wait for you, bring you along."

"Nah, don't do that. I've got a life here. And I make him 'uncomfortable' these days," he grinned. "Besides, I don't feel like watching the honeymoon phase. Dawn here has my sympathies."

Rose rested her cheek on his shoulder and tightened her embrace. "Then we'll be back to visit, often. Mum's back in the other world, so you're my rock now."

Jack smiled and nodded. "Alright, I get it. You're not leaving me to wallow and turn into a sexier version of him, understood. Now steal your rock and go get yourself a Doctor."

Rose beamed and kissed his cheek one last time before he walked off and joined the excitement of his team.

Dawn giggled again and bit her lip to hide her grin. "Now why wasn't there one of him in my dimension?" She wondered aloud as she opened the glass container. She grabbed a cloth from a nearby table and wrapped it around the shard as she picked it up and gently placed it in her purse.

"Well there couldn't be, without a me and the Doctor," Rose smiled. "He's a fifty-first century man, won't be born for three thousand years or so." She shook her head when Dawn began to demand an explanation, and for a moment they watched the group around them, before heading back to the lift and stepping up onto it. "Goodbye Jack!" She shouted, waving. "Remember not to die before I get back again!"

Jack smiled and waved. "Not much chance of that," he said quietly to himself as she vanished upwards.

* * *

Dawn insisted that they find a quiet area to test the thing, before finding the rest of the necessary items. "It would be a waste," she said, "to find that stuff and then realize that the rock won't even work."

Rose agreed and they left the plaza, walking around for a bit until they found a small park – and then walking further until they found a small, secluded corner.

"Okay," Dawn pulled off her coat and laid it out on the ground; she straightened it a bit before, very ungracefully, half-falling onto it. She opened her purse and pulled out the cloth-wrapped shard, then set it on the ground just in front of her. "Now, I don't really have the supplies for a true power-test, but I'm pretty good at sensing the strength of something by touch. Just a bit of chanting and whatever you do, stop me if I start glowing."

"If you start doin' _what_?"

Dawn waved her off, took a deep breath and unwrapped it. There was a flash of light as her fingers made contact and the blood drained from her face. "Rose, the key, now!"

Rose fumbled a bit under her sweater, but after a moment managed to pull the chain over her head. She handed it over, her eyes full of trepidation. "You said to stop it if you start glowin', was that glowin'?"

"Not yet," Dawn picked up the shard and held the key in the other hand. Her arm began to shake as she drew the shard close to her opposite forearm. She stabbed the sharp and pointed edge into her flesh and dragged it across, letting the blood drip down and puddle in her palm. Green and gold sparks began to dance along her skin, and Dawn's hair moved in a wind that didn't exist. "He's coming," she whispered. "It's working!" The wind intensified and her breath quickened as she began to chant words that Rose didn't understand. Her eyes had gone emerald, pupil and all, until her words became a shout. The wind stilled, the sparks faded and Dawn met the stare of her friend. "Rose," she whispered.

Her eyes rolled back in her head, and the bloodied key fell to the dirt. The last thing she heard before the world faded to grey was a faint 'vworp, vworp' somewhere in the distance.


	4. Swirl and Ache

Swirl and Ache

* * *

A dark brown head appeared from the door of a police box. It frowned, and glanced around the unassuming park in which it had recently appeared.

A head of long red hair appeared beside and looked about, raising it's eyebrows. "Cardiff?" It questioned the other.

"Apparently," the dark-haired man stepped into the light and shoved his fists deep into his pockets. "Welcome to lovely Cardiff, which is most definitely not where I intended to go, but occasionally interesting none-the-less. Perhaps we'll visit Jack," he smiled suddenly and reached for her hand. "Just be sure not to like him too much."

"Jack's a bit busy," a female voice said from somewhere behind them. The man froze, his grip on the redhead's hand tightening. "But if you give him a few days I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

He slowly turned around, his face blank. His eyes ran up and down the curving blonde form standing just to the right of the ship, but no words escaped him.

She licked her lips and smiled nervously while tugging at her honey-colored locks. "I, um, I guess I look a bit different. Colored my hair." She gulped a little. "Got older. It's been over three years for me, how long's it been for you?"

"Nineteen hundred and thirty-three days," his voice was utterly flat, his expression betrayed nothing. "What are you?"

Her face twitched, as if she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. "Not a Slitheen," she whispered. "Just me. Doctor," her bottom lip began to tremble. "Say somethin' will you? I thought you'd," her voice caught, "thought you'd be glad."

He dropped the other woman's hand and took a step forward. His fingers were clenching and unclenching, as if he itched to reach out but didn't dare. "You," he stopped, watching her face. "Really?"

She nodded, tears beginning to streak down her cheeks. "Really really, it's me," her voice hitched. "When we first met, when you still had big ears and you wore a leather jacket, you looked at me and you said 'run'."

He had crossed the distance between them before she had finished the words, she was in his arms and she felt a strange dampness pressed against her shoulder. "Rose," he breathed, half gasping.

"Doctor," her voice broke. "My Doctor," her hands gripped the back of his jacket, and she sobbed into his chest. They were both clutching at one another, as if they couldn't quite get close enough. "I," she choked over the words. "I missed you."

"As well you should," he let out a small half-choked laugh. "Thought I – thought I'd lost you."

"Never," her voice was so fierce. "I promised forever, remember?"

"So you did," he leaned back just a little and looked into her tear-filled eyes. She was shocked to see into his – the pain and joy in his eyes was clearer than she had ever seen before. "My Rose. You came back to me."

She nodded, the tears beginning to fall again. "I told you," she stumbled over the words. "I told you I would never leave you."

He pulled her close again.

They were both raw, their emotions so visible that a blind man might have seen it. The Doctor's newest companion stepped away, moving to the other side of the ship. It was too powerful – she knew he wouldn't want anyone else to see him like that...no one but her was allowed into that part of his life. She smiled a bit sadly as she leaned against the cool blue wood, wondering now if her time was over. She'd had him for months now...but he would never be hers, and she didn't want him to be. Not like that anyway.

She saw something odd, out of the corner of her eye and slowly her gaze drifted to the right. A hand was visible, extending limply beyond the edge of a shrub. She inched forward, resisting the instinctive response - to shout for the Doctor. She leaned forward, peering over into the secluded corner and succumbed to the earlier urge.

"DOCTOR!"

* * *

Rose was rushing around the infirmary, handing bottles and and bandages to the Doctor as he called out frantic orders. Still, there was a smile on his face that could not be stopped, not even when faced with an injury he didn't understand and a wound that seemed intent on not healing.

"Well _that_ is decidedly unusual, yes indeed," he was muttering as he examined the self-inflicted wound on Dawn's right arm. "Normally," he explained, picking up the cloth he had just wiped over it. "This would have caused it to clot immediately...but she's still bleeding – slower, but still bleeding. Fascinating – and not good!" He looked at Rose and his smile faded a bit. "Your friend is being stubborn."

"She's really good at that," Rose replied, biting her lower lip. She began to pace in her small corner of the room. "She did this before, after we got here, she was unconscious for almost a day – but she'd stopped bleeding already by then."

The Doctor stopped and looked at her. "She did what? Why was she bleeding?"

"She's how we got here," Rose explained. "She did somethin', magic or somethin'. Said that there was some bit of me, part of my actual nature, that wanted to be in it's home dimension. So she did some sort of ritual, got us back here."

"And she bled herself for it?" He turned her other arm gently, his fingers lightly grazing the freshly healed scab on her palm. "I don't know what she did, I don't know how to heal her."

"She said the TARDIS key wanted somethin' from her," Rose said suddenly. "When she first held it, she said it hurt, like it was pullin' at her. Then when she held it, with that rock, it looked like she was bein' electrocuted, there was green and gold sparks all over her."

His brows drew together and he shook his head. "No, no sense at all," the Doctor picked up a bandage and began wrapping the wound on her arm. "I don't think she's lost enough blood to be in danger there, but just in case I'm going to give her a bit of a boost for it. Um, hand me that purpley sort of twisty bottle over there."

Donna and Rose both reached for it, the redhead's hand wrapping around it first. She started, realizing how close the blonde was, and smiled before handing it over to her. "Here," she murmured.

"Thanks," Rose smiled, a bit tensely, as she gave the bottle to the Doctor. "You think she'll be alright then?"

"Oh certainly," he grinned at her. "Do I ever fail?"

Rose frowned a little. "Well, there was -"

"And don't mention that business on Tra'al, we agreed not to talk about that again!" He gave her a shifty look and she laughed. He smiled wider and reached over Dawn's bed for her hand. "Still can't quite wrap my head around my good luck."

"Not used to it?" Rose smiled and twined her fingers through his. "I promised Dawn I'd bring her with us, you know. Since I sort of...trapped her here. She was from that world you know."

"Yeah," he sighed sadly. "Poor girl. She have a family?"

"Not much of blood," Rose shrugged, using her free hand to stroke Dawn's hair absently. "Just a big sister, and I don't think they get on well – but she's close to the sister's friends. I met her at a bar just outside of Cleveland; I'd gone there because my Torchwood had connections, said there were people who dealt with interdimensional travel and that the best place to meet them was a girl's school in Cleveland. They refused to even think about helping, and when I went to get pissed I met Dawn. She hated that they still treated her like the little sister, wouldn't let her help...so she helped me."

"Didn't realize the implications," the Doctor said, nodding slowly. "Didn't realize she'd be trapped."

"Major life decisions should never be mixed with tequila," Rose said, smiling sardonically. "As we learned that night." She chuckled a little. "I didn't even call my family. Though, I told them a long time ago...if I ever found a way, I'd take it and they shouldn't worry."

"I'm beginning to feel like an idiot for giving up so easily," the Doctor frowned. "If I thought there was hope I would have -"

"Oy, none of that," Rose squeezed his hand. "Once in a while it's my job to rescue myself, got it? Can't let me rely on you too much."

His eyes lit up. "Rose Tyler, you are fantastic."

"Quite right," she swung their joined arms a bit and smiled. "I guess we'll just...let her sleep?"

"Oh, yes, good idea," he pulled her over to his side of the bed and turned, then started. "Oh! Donna! You sort of met Rose, Rose you sort of met Donna."

They both laughed a little at him. "Yes," Donna smiled. She reached out and shook Rose's free hand. "I'm so happy you're here. He's been lost without you."

"I – I have not!" The Doctor looked offended. At Donna's look he relented a bit. "Well I wasn't happy about it."

"You kidnapped me!"

"I did not! Well not on purpose anyway. As if I wanted you, you were rude!"

Donna's jaw dropped and she shoved his shoulder as they headed out the door. "And you just sat there being grumpy! Stole that jumper of hers right out of my hand as if I was going to sully it with my touch."

Rose tried to hide her smile. "You didn't let them touch my things?"

The Doctor glanced at her, his eyes reflecting for a brief moment, the pain of the years without her. "Couldn't," he replied quietly. "It was easier...pretending you were on holiday with Jackie."

Rose released his hand, only to hug his arm. "Turns out you were right!" She smiled up at him. "And now it's on to the real adventures!"

"Yes!" He jumped forward, darting down the hall toward the console room. "Where to now?" He shouted over his shoulder. He stopped just inside the entrance and turned back to face his companions, who seemed a bit out of breath after chasing him through the labyrinthine halls of the TARDIS. "Anywhere in the universe ladies, where to?"

Donna looked between the Doctor and Rose, her brow furrowing a bit. "I can still come along?"

The Doctor seemed startled by the question, choosing to shoot a glance at Rose instead of answering. "I don't see why -"

"Of course you're still coming!" Rose nudged her gently. "I've had a couple years away, I don't know if I can jump right back into being his full-time source of amusement, he can be exhausting you know."

"Oh I know," Donna twisted her lips. "You're sure you don't want him all to yourself?"

Rose shook her head, smiling. "Besides, even if we did want that, we've already got Dawnie! Oh lord," she glanced at the Doctor. "Dawn and Donna? Didn't think of that. You might have to change your name."

Donna's eyebrows raised to her hairline. "Me? I've had it longer! And I've been here longer! She's just a kid, she gets to change her name!"

Rose shrugged. "I dunno, she's pretty attached to it. We could just call you Ms. Noble all the time."

"Don't you dare!" Donna shifted a bit. "Makes me sound old!"

"Well..." Rose smirked then shook her head. "Just kiddin', we'll figure somethin' out. Maybe Dawn's tired of the name, who knows. Maybe we'll just call you both by your last names, to be fair. Summers and Noble?"

Donna pursed her lips and folded her arms. "Well," she started. The Doctor seemed to find this a good point to intervene with a quick demand as to their desired destination.

Rose tilted her head and shrugged. "Somewhere good, Dawn hasn't seen anything. Once she wakes up, she'll want a relaxing day or two before we start adventuring you know."

"Hmm," he paused thoughtfully then grinned. "I know just the place! What do you think about Thursday?"

"Never could get the hang of them," Donna muttered.

"Planet Thursday it is!" He spun a few dials and pressed several buttons – none of which made any sense to anyone but him, but Rose was happy to watch him do it.

"Rose?" A weak voice made everyone in the room freeze and turn their eyes to the hallway entrance. Dawn was leaning against the wall, holding onto it as if she might fall.

Before Rose could move, Donna had reached her and was holding her up. "Alright there Dawn?"

"I need out," Dawn whispered. "I have to get out of here, please let me out."

"We're already moving," the Doctor informed her, watching cautiously as Donna led her further into the room. "I can't take you back to your dimension Dawn, you know that don't you?"

"I don't care," her breath was coming faster as she neared the center console. "There's something very wrong here, I can't stand it, I can't, you – you have to let me out."

"Can't do it, not until we land. Even then, well, you wouldn't want to live on Thursday would you?" He tried to look sweet and charming, but only managed to look concerned. "You might not want to be walking just yet."

"I can't help it," Dawn replied tersely. "It's controlling me, it won't let me move away."

"The TARDIS? It's doing what?" Now he was looking at her like she was crazy. Rose stepped forward and stopped Donna.

"Dawnie, let's get you back to bed."

"Oh good, yeah try it." After a pause, Rose attempted to pick up Dawn's foot only to be completely unsuccessful. "Yeah, stuck to the floor unless I move forward."

The Doctor jumped forward and aimed his screwdriver at her feet, then tried to lift one. He cocked his head to the side. "Well, lift it up as if you were moving forward, then we'll carry you back to bed."

Dawn picked up one foot as if to step, and the Doctor grabbed the leg. The flaw in his plan then became apparent, as she could not pick up both feet at the same time, and the other was once again stuck to the floor.

"What!" He looked around the room at the puzzled faces of his companions. "What!"

Dawn shrugged. "It's been like this since I climbed out to bed to see if I could shout for Rose. When I was going along the wall my hands stuck too."

Now he was looking at the instruments on the ship, as if a 'sticking to people's feet' reading was magically going to appear somewhere. "Well," he sounded baffled. "Follow it?"

"So these are the brilliant plans of The Doctor," Dawn muttered sarcastically as Rose and Donna led her along the invisible path the TARDIS had set for her. It stopped on the other side of the console, leaving her looking around the tall green column to the Doctor. "So? Idea for what I should do now? I can't go forward anymore, and the feet are sticking if I try for anything else."

He came around and looked at the things closest to her. "Well, none of these are things you're allowed to touch so no, no plans yet."

Her right hand began to twitch and they watched as it inched toward a wide, sealed grate. Her eyes went wide. "Um..."

"No, no don't touch that!" He reached for her, but not before her hand landed palm-flat against it.

A noise that no human being could make escaped Dawn's lips, and great waves of energy flowed over her body from her feet through the grate.

"What's in there?" Donna demanded, her voice catching fearfully. "What is it?"

"The heart of the TARDIS," Rose murmured.

"The Time Vortex," the Doctor added mournfully. "She's going to break her."

"The void is calling," Dawn's voice echoed with a thousand tones. "It demands contact. It hungers."

"The void is not getting my ship!" The Doctor attempted to grab Dawn's hand, only to find himself flat on his back halfway to the door. "Hey, not nice!" He paused for a moment then ran across the room, pulling out a pair of 3D glasses as he neared her again. He placed them on and his face went slack. "That's...impossible."

"What?" Rose grabbed the glasses as he removed them and put them on her own face before looking at Dawn. "Doctor? What's -" she looked down at her own hand and saw the normal floating particles of 'void stuff'. "She's not just got some on her, she's _made_ of it. How can she be made of void stuff?"

"She can't," he replied, watching her with wide and paranoid eyes. "What are you?"

"The Key has been bound...it wants to be free," for a moment her eyes were blue again. "I can feel it! It hurts!"

The light around her went dim, and Dawn collapsed at their feet.


	5. Light Of The Sun

Light of the Sun

* * *

The Doctor squatted down beside Dawn's head then pulling out his stethoscope. He checked her heartbeat and frowned. "A bit slow, but strong. Just unconscious. Again – does your friend do this a lot?"

"Seems to lately," Rose replied. "But only about this stuff, she's perfectly healthy the rest of the time."

"Hmm," he paused thoughtfully. An alarm began to sound from the console, and he ran off to check it. "That's impossible!" He shouted again, then paused. "I'm going to stop saying that for now, I keep getting proved wrong."

"What is it?" Donna was looking through the grating at the odd light escaping the TARDIS. "Do you know it's still glowing down there?"

"What?!" He circled the console and looked down, his expression almost comically shocked. "That's – very very improbable!"

Rose fiddled with the glasses still in her hand for a moment, absently placing them back on her face. She blinked a few times, looking down at Dawn. She held her hands in front of her face and quickly ripped them off. "Doctor!" She threw the glasses at him. "Look at me! And her!"

He took the 3D glasses and held them over his eyes. He tilted his head and looked even more bewildered for a moment. "What!?"

"There's no more void stuff!" Rose looked at her own hands, though without the benefit of the glasses it didn't really matter. "Dawn's just made of person, and there's not any around me either! Look!"

"I'm looking, but that's – very very very improbable!" He circled Dawn and glanced at Rose. "You were steeped in this stuff a few minutes ago. Now it's as if...impossible. Er, improbable."

"What?" Rose glanced between Donna and the Doctor. "What is it?"

"How should I know?" Donna looked a bit offended. "I don't even know what you're looking at with the glasses, this isn't Disney World."

The Doctor darted back to the monitor and jumped up and down a few times. "What!" He leaned around and peered at Rose. "Rose," he began calmly. "What exactly did you bring aboard my ship?"

"She's just a girl!" Rose bit her lower lip. "Isn't she? It's not her fault." There was a groan from the girl in question, and they all quickly circled her again. Rose knelt down and stroked her hair gently. "Dawn? You all right?"

"Anyone get the license plate on that space ship?" Dawn muttered. She used Rose as leverage to pull herself to her feet and moved them experimentally. "Apparently it's done with me now." She frowned and wiggled random bits of her self. "That's just...weird. And...weird."

"There's been an excess of that today," the Doctor folded his arms angrily. "What are you and what have you done to my TARDIS?"

"I dunno," Dawn was cautiously putting her weight on herself, leaning away from Rose. "I mean I know what I am, but I don't know what it wanted with me."

"Alright, start with what you are."

She shrugged, her eyes locking on the covered Vortex. "No...no wait, I think...I understand. Rose!" Her eyes darted to the blonde. "You told me that the people like the Doctor used to be able to go between dimensions right?"

Rose glanced at the Doctor and he nodded quickly. "Yeah," she replied. "But since the Time War he can't do it anymore."

"It makes so much sense," Dawn looked up at the ceiling. "It splintered or something, with the war. The Vortex right? The part that controlled dimensional travel broke."

The Doctor nodded cautiously. "They would have repaired it, had they lived but...it was to prevent Daleks from hiding in other worlds."

"The place they sent it to must have been my Earth, billions of years ago," Dawn was getting more animated, and a slow smile spread across her face. "God I love figuring things out. I never get to be the one who figures it out!"

"Perhaps you could explain it then." The Doctor was losing patience, his voice was entirely too calm.

Dawn blanched a bit. "Sorry. Really I get kinda - um, anyway, so, there were these monks in my world okay? Since like, forever they'd been protecting the Key. Big green swirly energy that could open the walls between. But then Glory came and she wanted to get back to hers – dimension that is. Hellgoddess, really nasty bitch basically. So they wanted the Key to be protected, and figured the best way to do that was to send it to the Slayer."

"Slayer?" Donna looked confused. "The band?"

Dawn tittered nervously. "Oh yeah that. Okay quickly the speech. Demons, vampires and magic are real, and into every generation one girl is born with the strength and skill to fight them. Which is actually an incorrect speech because in every generation there are actually about two thousand girls who could be the Slayer, it's just that only one at a time gets the power and when she dies the next in line gets it, and so on and so forth. Since '96, it's been my sister Buffy." She glanced at the group in front of her, Donna and Rose seemed fairly accepting – Rose particularly so – but the Doctor wasn't even hiding his scorn for the tale. He snorted.

Dawn rolled her eyes – 'Intellectual types', was thought rather derisively in his direction. "So anyway, they also knew that the best way to make sure the Slayer was all hardcore about protecting the Key would be to make her emotionally attached to it, so they put it in human form and somehow went back in time and messed with everyone's memories so she would think that the human-y Key was her little sister, i.e., me."

"So you're claiming to be the physical embodiment of the Dimensional Vortex?" The Doctor folded his arms. "That's impossible."

"Hey, just 'cause you don't believe in magic -"

"Magic doesn't exist," the Doctor shot back. "I'm well over nine hundred years old, I've traveled the whole of the  
known universe and a couple of unknown ones – there is no magic. Just technology."

"Okay, then YOU come up with a reason that this thing just drained me of green swirly energy." Dawn folded her arms, sulking.

He paused. "Alright then, for a moment running on the assumption that you're right," he held up the 3D glasses to his face and looked at her. "It would actually explain it. Why you were made of void stuff, and why now there's not a trace of it in the room. Even on me and Rose, where it should be."

"Void stuff?" Donna questioned Rose quietly.

"Sort of interdimensional airport dust," Rose replied just as softly. "You can only see it with those glasses, the Doctor and I were covered in it after we went through the first time."

"What it doesn't explain is why after giving all that power, you're still here," he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and waved it over her, frowning at something on it that no one else could understand. "If you were the Vortex in physical form, you'd be vanished, absorbed into it."

"They must have used some kind of human body when they made me." Dawn shivered and shook her head slightly. "I'm just a meat shell now. I never realized that I could feel it before, the power of it all, but it's gone. Empty. There was something _more_ about me...and now it's just me...just a body." She laughed bitterly. "I guess that's why I could do it, summon the TARDIS and get us here from my dimension. It wasn't me doing magic...it was me, _being_ magic."

"One body couldn't harness the power of the Vortex," the Doctor shook his head and ran into the hall. "Wait there!"

"Yeah yeah," Dawn pouted. "This adventuring isn't as much fun as you made it sound Rose." She glared balefully at her friend. "So far it's just ended up with me Gilesing out like five times."

"We've never had the Vortex taking human form and cutting itself before either," Rose pointed out. "You're basing your opinion on faulty data."

"You know, sometimes you talk like a scientist," Donna tilted her head at Rose. "But I thought you were -"

"A shop girl? I was. I've worked for Torchwood for almost four years, and I was with the Doctor for two before that – you pick up a bit of jargon." Rose shrugged. "People change, you know?"

"Ah ha!" The Doctor ran back into the room with a smallish device. He waved it over Dawn and pressed a button, waiting expectantly. He frowned. "Human?" He shook it a little. "Stupid thing."

"Were you expecting it to say 'Void Stuff Girl'?" Dawn raised an eyebrow. "I told you, _I_ am human. It was just...the other stuff that wasn't."

"And I'm telling you there is no way you could absorb that sort of power and live," the Doctor spun around and his eyes turned just a tad mournful as they landed on Rose. "Ask her, she absorbed the Time Vortex for just a few minutes and it nearly killed her. I took it out of her, and it did kill me. No one can hold that sort of power."

Dawn scowled. "What will it take to prove to you? Want me to pull out my bag with my ID card? Show you that I wear lip-plumper complete with teeny bits of venom, just 'cause I like the tingle? Hey, Rose, my bag's there by the door – thanks for whoever grabbed it from that park bee-tee-dubya. I think I might have a candy bar, would that prove it to you?" She was getting rather shrill.

"Well someone's a bit tetchy," the Doctor shrugged. "But the fact remains."

Dawn trembled a bit. "Yeah, tetchy. The last time someone focused on this shit they cut me open and killed my sister. I don't like to talk about it, I don't like people telling me I'm not a person." She stalked over to her bag in the opposite corner and began to dig.

"Never said you weren't a person," he waggled a finger at her. "I said you weren't human, there's a very big difference there, legally if nowhere else."

She returned the console and held out a deeply creased photo. "That's me, that's my mom, and that's Buffy. We're family, okay? Blood kin. Please stop trying to make my doubt that."

He softened as he took the picture, looking sadly at it. "Your mum looks nice," he changed the subject. "The sort to bake apple pies and go shopping for school supplies."

"Yeah," Dawn wrapped her arms around her torso. "She died when I was fourteen. She was my mom."

He nodded. "She was your mother," he agreed. "And your sister is your sister, that can't be changed no matter what."

Dawn grabbed the picture back and folded it delicately before returning it to her purse. "I didn't pick them," she whispered. "But I would have, if I could. Even if I hate her sometimes, I love Buffy. She can be an overbearing bitch, really often actually, but she's my sister."

She began to throw her bag over her shoulder and cursed loudly when she missed and it fell to the floor. She knelt and began shoving the contents back in, but her hand was stilled over a tarnished gold pocket watch. The Doctor released her wrist and picked it up, staring at her in shock and mild horror. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at him, confusion in her large blue eyes.

"What?"


	6. Shattered Water

AN: So, I realized a slight continuity error in my story...I've been referring to Dawn as being younger than Rose, but Dawn is actually be the older of the two, even if only slightly (if she was 15 by Once More With Feeling she had to have been born sometime in 1986, where Rose was born in 1987...). So ignore previous references, please :)

--

The Doctor cradled the watch in his hands, his expressive eyes full of sorrow.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'm so sorry."

Dawn stood slowly, her brow furrowing fearfully as she pulled her bag to her chest. "What? Stop looking at me like that!"

"This," he held up the watch. "Where did you get it?"

She paused, blinking a few times. "I dunno," she shrugged, her expression guarded. "I've always had it. Maybe it was my grampa's, he gave Mom lots of weird stuff before he died. It's just a broken watch."

"No, Dawn," he cradled it gently. "This is - this is so much more."

"Stop it!" Dawn backed away, shaking her head. "You're going back to that stupid theory and you're wrong!"

"This," he traced the carving on the back lightly. "Is a part of a Chameleon Arch. Re-writes body chemistry, changes the mind, and gives false memories. Allows you a shot at humanity."

"Okay, so what then? The watch is from some alien thing," Dawn was still slowly moving backward. "It doesn't mean anything."

"It contains the whole of your natural biology, the whole of your mind. It's from Gallifrey, my home planet Dawn - you're a Time Lord."

Rose went white and Donna gaped.

Dawn trembled visibly, the knuckles wrapped around her purse straps turning white. "You read my journal," she whispered, her voice shaking with something not quite anger and not quite terror. "That's the only way you could know that word - I don't let people read my stories, they're mine!"

The Doctor continued as if she hadn't spoken. "I did it once, trying to avoid a killer that was tracking me. Made myself human, hiding in 1913. But I still remembered - I drew pictures and wrote stories of people I had known and things I had seen. And I would imagine the result was pretty similar to what's in that bag of yours."

"That's not possible," she dug in and pulled out a worn leather book. "I've been writing these things down since I was -" she stopped, eyes widening. "I never wrote them before I was fourteen," her voice was thick and her arms were shaking. "Even though I wrote down everything, always have; all my thoughts and dream - those didn't show up until I was fourteen...until I was real."

"Your false memories would have been designed to hide your nature," the Doctor nodded slowly. "Never would have showed up in diaries until you were really writing them."

"Oh. Oh," she rubbed at her cheek and then stared at the dampness on her fingertips. She hadn't even noticed she was crying. "Oh, fuck."

"Dawn," Rose reached out but the younger girl jerked away. She looked at the Doctor helplessly, but he shook his head.

"You know the truth," he said quietly. "It's probably why the TARDIS reacted so strongly to you; helped you summon me here."

Dawn folded in on herself, curling her knees into her chest as she sat on the floor. She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her legs, gripping the denim between her fingers desperately. "It's not fair," she choked. "Every time I get used to what I am, they change the rules on me."

"You have to open it," the Doctor informed her gently. "You have to wake up."

"Why?" Rose laid a hand on his arm, keeping him back. "Can't she stay who she is, will it hurt her?"

"No, it wouldn't hurt her but -" when he looked at her she saw for a moment the brooding, broken eyes of her old Doctor. "I don't have to be the last anymore Rose. There are thousands of girls I knew, and she could be any one of them."

"It's not fair to do that to her," she said softly. "You can't ask her to. You're not alone anymore. You have us, you have her, and someday...maybe she'll be ready. You just...can't ask her to do this, not now."

He straightened suddenly, shaking off an inner torment. "You're right," he stared at the watch for just a moment longer before striding toward her. "Dawn...I'm sorry," he said again. "I shouldn't have tried to force you. Keep it, treasure being human; don't let me ruin things for you."

He was turning to walk away when her voice startled him. "If I did it," she didn't look up. "Could I go back?"

He shook his head sadly. "It doesn't work that way."

Her tear-streaked face lifted from her knees, and he regretted ever taunting her about her nature. "Would I still love them?"

"I don't know," he knelt beside her and took one of her hands. "The Chameleon Arch changes you in every way possible. It made me a coward, the Master a good man, it made you Dawn Summers. The girl you were before could be anyone." He wiped her cheek gently. "I can't tell you, I don't know who you were. But I think there's a good soul in there, and that makes all the difference in the world."

Dawn's face crumbled, and she shook her head tightly. The tears on her cheeks were slowing, but her body still shook with repressed sob. She tried to speak, but she didn't make it past the first sound before she began to cry again.

He squeezed her hand gently, then released her, setting the watch in her palm and curling her fingers around it. "Be who you are, stay Dawn Summers. I've got a newly dimensionally-capable TARDIS to take you home, if you want, or you can travel with us." He stood and smiled down at her. "There's always another adventure!" With a jaunty wave he walked back toward the hall, not noticing the quiet click behind him.

"Oh," Dawn's voice had changed, just a bit in inflection and accent, and he spun around. "Well," she murmured. "That explains that."

He didn't move, but his eyes were wide and locked on her face. "Are you..." he trailed off. "Do you remember?"

"Yeah," she looked up at him sadly. "Doctor. I'm sorry," she bit her lower lip. "You want me to say I'm a regeneration of Lady President Romana don't you? Or your granddaughter Susan?"

His voice was raw. "I know that they're dead, it's all right; I've mourned them. Do I..."

She shook her head and hugged her knees briefly. "No," she stood up shakily. "Oh that feels weird," she pressed her hand against the right side of her chest. "Extra heart. Oh and - weird, very weird. I haven't been in this form as me, so...weird."

"Who are you?" He stepped forward. "Maybe we -"

"You don't know me," she smiled sadly. "The closest you ever came to my life was your TARDIS landing in front of my house and blocking the front door. Broke the front steps and according to my Dad we had to go in and out the window until you moved it. I'm sorry."

"Oh," the grief in that word might not have been tangible to the casual observer, but Rose and Donna silently moved to flank him, each taking one of his hands tightly in theirs.

The girl that had been Dawn Summers chewed her lip and tugged on a long strand of chocolate hair. "I um, I'm not gonna be what you wanted," she hugged her torso tightly. "I'm sorry Doctor."

"It's all right," they all knew it wasn't. "Just...please, who are you?"

"It doesn't matter. My name I mean. My parents are-" she stopped. "Were, I guess now, not very high-ranking, even though Mother was a Cardinal, it wasn't, I mean...they didn't draw attention to themselves. They sent me away, I guess they though that if there was one place in the universe I would be safe it would be the twenty-first century on an alternate Earth."

He breathed deeply and looked at her, tilting his head. "You were just a child," he said slowly. "A little girl sent to hide from the war."

She ducked her head, letting her hair fall in a silky curtain about her face. "Yeah," she replied sadly. A bitter little laugh escaped her. "They just forgot how fucking cruel humans are when they're faced with their own destruction."

Rose and Donna exchanged sharp glances, both tensing ever so slightly. "What did they do to you?" The blonde asked cautiously.

The Time Lady rubbed her arms, shivering a bit. "The Monks of Dagon," she murmured. "I don't know how they knew what they did, but god they..." she winced. "They knew that nothing could take in the Key and live. Even a Gallifreyan. They needed a body that would...heal itself."

The Doctor's grip tightened on his companions' hands. "They forced a regeneration," his voice held a note of horror, and significantly more fury.

She nodded, hugging herself. "The...process they used made me take aspects of Buffy; they used her blood for it. Then when I was still healing, they added the bits of the Key."

Donna frowned. "What's a regeneration and how do you force one?" She whispered to Rose.

"It's a Time Lord trick," the Doctor answered. "When we're dying, we rewrite our cells to erase injury, but it changes us inside and out. And you force one by making it necessary." He squeezed their hands tightly. "It was a capital crime on Gallifrey."

She nodded. "It doesn't make sense how they could operate Gallifreyan technology, but they did. They rewrote everyone's memories; put me in the Chameleon Arch...and left me Dawn Summers."

"Oh Dawnie," Rose stopped. "I mean, I -" she looked helplessly at the Doctor but he shook his head slightly. "What do you want to be called?"

"That's just it!" She winced at how shrill she sounded, and began to pace. "It's all wrong - I don't know how to be a grown-up Time Lady, I was just a kid! I grew up as Dawn, I feel like her but at the same time I don't. I've been her for half my life! I remember all her feelings, I want to kill the people that hurt her and hurt Buffy or Xander or Willow, and I want my Mother! I don't even know which one!" She wanted to scream and cry and hit something, and it showed in every movement she made. "I hate this!"

The Doctor released the girls' hands and stepped forward, opening his arms slightly. Not-Dawn threw herself into his embrace, crying again. "It will get easier," he whispered.

"I don't even know who I am," she gasped shakily. "How can I live a life like this? What am I supposed to do now?"

"Who you are is decided by you," he murmured into her hair. "You can be Dawn the Time Lady, or you can be the Key, or whatever you want to call yourself. You aren't alone. I'll help you."

He leaned back and wiped her cheek gently. "You'll be fine," he promised. "Everything's gonna be all right."

"Don't start singing please," she mumbled. "I can't take the Beatles today."

"Oh? I do a fantastic Ringo," he grinned at her and she couldn't help but smile a little back. "Ah see! Glimmer of hope for the future. First thing though, you really must pick a name. I can't keep calling you Not-Dawn in my head."

She pushed him away with a glare. "Pressure much? It's not like naming a cat; I'm picking a new identity for myself. I don't want to end up with something stupid like 'The Doctor'," she made air quotes with her fingers and he looked insulted. "I'd like a real name."

"How about Summer?" Donna suggested suddenly. "Summers was your last name right? You get a bit of a tie without the pressure of who Dawn was. And I get to keep my name without confusion," she added at the last, smiling brightly.

"Summer?" She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Hmm. I like it! It's a real name too," she stuck her tongue out at the Doctor. "Thank you Donna!"

"Alright then, Summer," the Doctor stepped away and stood at the controls. "Where would you like to go first?"

"My dimension?" She sounded hopeful. "Cleveland, preferably around nine AM, February 28th, 2011 would be great."

He grinned at her. "Know how to work the controls?"

Summer raised an eyebrow. "A Type 40? Seriously? That's like going into the fifty-first century and asking if they can drive a Ford Model T."

"That would be a no then," he looked offended. "Well now you're not allowed to try anyway, you've hurt her feelings!"

"She was decommissioned before my great-great-great grandfather was born!" She stood, arms akimbo. "This thing should be in a museum."

"Not while I'm alive!" He caressed the console gently. "This girl has risked herself for me a whole lot more than any shiny new model ever would."

"Whatever," Summer shrugged and turned to Rose. "So, does he happen to keep a well-stocked closet? 'Cause we're both a little...bloody."

Rose looked down at herself, startled. She hadn't even noticed, but all of them had gotten a bit grimy since their arrival, each being at least slightly streaked with blood from getting Dawn on board the ship. She nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I'll take you over. We need to get you a room too, and I think we all," she shot a glance at the Doctor. "Need to shower before we have any more adventures."

As if on perfect cue, the TARDIS shuddered violently. The girls grabbed the rail behind them and the Doctor stared at the controls with eyebrows that were remarkably close to his hairline. "What!" He glanced at them and ran around the other side of the console. "What?!"

Suddenly there were sirens, bells and whistles all screaming in outrage as the TARDIS began tumbling through the void - in and out of dimensions, through time and space with no clear trajectory. Summer found herself clinging to the rail with all of her strength as they were flung out through the multiverse.

The crash was almost anti-climactic after the flight - but they were still knocked off their feet by it. Rose looked decidedly shaky, and Donna had a small gash on her forehead. The Doctor had jumped up almost instantly, checking first Rose and then Donna for more serious injuries with the sonic screwdriver. Summer proclaimed her health from across the room, and after deciding the humans were safe as well he darted back to the console - quickly running checks on his precious ship to be sure she hadn't been too damaged. The monitor flickered a few times before the image settled.

"Alternate Earth," the Doctor said after a pause. "Check. Which one? 'Nother question entirely."

The girls slowly approached the screen, staring at the Gothic castle with trepidation. He grinned at them, his eyes lighting brightly with sudden enthusiasm.

"Ready for excitement?"


End file.
